10 The Linguist Vol/60 No/3 2021
thelinguist.uberflip.com
FEATURES
MAKING CONNECTIONS
Sarinya Wood delivers her talk entitled 'From
Remote Interpreting to Hybrid Meetings'
Moving the CIOL Conference online was a challenge, but with more
participants than ever and a range of expert speakers, it was a great success
The delivery of the CIOL Conference during
lockdown in March was especially
challenging. In normal times, conferences
take almost a year of work, including finding
a venue, curating high level speakers, and
communicating this with the profession. Over
the planning period for this conference, we
had to change how we delivered the event
multiple times. We first looked at delivering a
hybrid event using the venue as a studio with
the speakers presenting in person. Once we
realised that travel to central London would
be impossible, we settled on a wholly online
event using Zoom, extending the proposed
two-day conference across three days, with
hundreds of delegates in attendance.
The speakers represented all aspects of
the linguist professions. The single-stream
format allowed delegates to enter and leave
as they pleased. For Carol Hogg MCIL,
running the online event over three full days
worked really well. "Every single presentation
provided valuable input and the event overall
has exuded a sense of realistic optimism in
these difficult times. A really positive
contribution to our profession," she said.
As with everything, online delivery of the
conference has its pros and cons. A major
advantage was that a number of delegates
were able to attend for the first time remotely
– among them Graeme Lorimer MCIL CL.
"I live in Florence and have been a CIOL
member for many more years than I can
remember," he shared. "Every spring I
wished to come in person but, for a reason or
another, never made it. Now, thanks to the
format due to Covid I finally could! The
conference was very interesting and useful."
Joining from Greece, Vicky Tzivi MCIL CL
expressed gratitude "for all the knowledge
Together remotely
I've had access to!" She added: "I'll definitely
follow Jaquelina [Guardamagna]'s advice on
nurturing relationships – 'our most valuable
and unique asset'."
The biggest thing missed by delegates,
speakers and the CIOL team was the
opportunity to interact and network with each
other – something which has always been a
great strength of the event. This provides a
very good reason for bringing back the
physical form next March (depending on the
situation with Covid), and the search for next
year's expert speakers has already begun!
Recordings of the three-day conference can
be purchased for £150 (non-members) and
£120 (members) via cutt.ly/Threlford2021.
